


Lay It All On Me Now

by FivePips



Series: Aroha [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Buying a HOUSE, Conflict, Established Relationship, First house, New Zealand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 04:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13403343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FivePips/pseuds/FivePips
Summary: Sirius wants to buy a house. Remus doesn't want to move. Teddy just wants his dumb dads to get it together and finally get married and have babies.Let me inEverything starts at your skin, so newYour love's always finding me outWho am I kidding?If all my defenses come down, oh babyWill you lay it all on me now?Lay it all on me now--Vance Joy Lay It On Me





	1. Conflict

**Author's Note:**

> Note on "Call It Dreaming": I love the story but after I started writing it there were some things that sort of happened in my life following the posting of what I had written. These events sort of made me lose the plot for some reason, I don't know why but my muse for that seems to have disappeared somewhere in November. I do want to continue writing it and I have one full chapter done but I haven't actually written anything for it since the beginning of November. Hopefully I'll get back to it at some point very soon because I love it. Until then here’s a two parter and I’m working on something for awards seasons/Valentine’s day when I have down time between my work and my teaching internship.

“I love you.” Sirius pressed a few kisses to Remus’ collarbone, neglecting the book he had begun to read. It was getting late, and they were waiting for Teddy to get back from being out with a mate. Sirius was thinking they could make a better time of it than sitting there doing nothing.

“Still? Not sick of me yet?” Remus grinned, running a hand down Sirius’ back. “I’m surprised you haven’t fucked back off to England yet if I’m being honest.”

“I’ll never get sick of you and the only time I’m going back there is with you.” Sirius moved, so his leg was between Remus’ then pressed up.

Sirius couldn’t believe that he had moved from the UK to New Zealand about nine months ago now. When Remus had come into his life, it was shocking because the last thing that he wanted to do was fall in love. He never thought he’d fall in love with someone with a teenage son. Life since that day in the pub almost two years ago was a wonderful rollercoaster. Okay, not always wonderful. There was a lot of pain on that rollercoaster, but it ended up okay. He was living with the man he loved and sharing a fantastic life.

Too bad the place they lived wasn’t exactly the greatest. It was far too small for them all. “Mmm, come here and kiss me properly.” Just as he was about to the front door slammed opened, and they could hear Teddy chatting away on his phone. “Never mind.” Remus sighed.

As much as Sirius loved Remus, Teddy, and the cozy little flat he hated how they were always on top of one another. You could also hear everything through the paper thin walls. After a few minutes of listening to Teddy, Sirius had to ask, “Do you ever think about moving?”

“No.” Remus furrowed his brow. “I can’t exactly afford it.”

“Right.” Sirius sighed, he had been thinking a lot about moving and buying a house. There was one for sale that he liked not too far from James. “What if I bought a house?”

“Why would you buy a house? It’s perfectly fine here.”

“Because we have no space here. There’s zero privacy.” Sirius couldn’t remember the last time they shagged without having to think if Teddy was in the flat or not. “Ted’s nearing 15. We’re always tripping over each other. We don’t even have a proper place to have dinner.” The table in the kitchen only could fit two. Which was fine back when it was just Teddy and Remus.

“Why do you need a proper place to have dinner? Also, we can just go down to the pub and eat at a table there if we wanted to.” Remus complained as Sirius sat back up.

There as a knock on the door, “Can I come in?” Ted asked.

“Yeah, what is it?” Sirius replied.

“I think we should move. There’s literally no room in this place, and I can hear EVERYTHING. I heard that whole conversation before I came in here.” Teddy said after flinging the door open. “Come on, Papa.”

“It costs money to move, tama. We don’t exactly have much.”

“Sirius is a surgeon who has a trust fund.”

“So, that’s his money.”

“You’re practically married.” Teddy pointed out to them.

Remus rolled his eyes, “Even still, it’s unfair for him to buy a house for all of us.”

“What if I want to buy the house?”

“The house? Do you already have one in mind?” Remus looked over at him with surprise.

“I mean, there is one place I’m interested in, but I’m not married to it. If you like something else, we can look at it. I want us all to be happy about it.”

Remus shook his head. “I’m fine where I am. I don’t know what you two have against this place.”

“No privacy.” Both Sirius and Teddy said at the same time.

“It’s not that bad. Teddy, you grew up here, it’s my father’s place.” Remus frowned.

“It’s not as if you’re getting rid of it. The pub is here.”

“Exactly, the pub is here.” Remus stood up, putting his hand on his hips.

“So? You’d have to commute like a normal person if you move. I don’t live at the hospital.” Sirius said. “Plus, the noise. When I come home from a 24-hour shift, and I just want to sleep, I can’t because all I hear are the people downstairs.”

“I didn’t realize you hated it here so much.”

“It’s fine, Remus, it’s just not—”

“Come on, Papa, stop giving Sirius a hard time on it. He’s right. Why don’t you look at this place Sirius likes? What could it hurt?”

“I’m going to make myself a cup of tea,” Remus said, going to leave the room. “Anyone want some?”

Teddy and Sirius shook their head, watching the other man leave. “You have to get him to buy a new place. You two are awesome, but I can’t get away from you unless if I leave the flat.”

“Teddy, you’re a teenager, I understand,” Sirius assured him.

“Plus, if you two ever want to adopt more kids—”

“Teddy,” Sirius said warningly. The boy was always trying to make them take a few more steps forward in their relationship. It was evident that he just wanted to have what he thought was a complete family. Teddy had seen his dad suffer for so long, that he just wanted some joy in that house.

“I saw you looking at that adoption website the other day,” Teddy said, lowering his voice.

Sirius rolled his eyes, trying to play it off. He had been looking into adoption. He had sort of fallen down one of those internet holes after reading some random story on Facebook. The idea of giving some kid a happy home, one he didn’t have, and one that Remus thought he took from Teddy as a toddler was very appealing to him. He hoped it was appealing to Remus too, but if Remus didn’t want to move, they wouldn’t be adopting any babies or even buying a kitten anytime soon.

“Can I see the house? Maybe we can work on him together.”

“You’re not working on me to do anything,” Remus said from the kitchen.

Teddy gave Sirius a pleading look with wide eyes and a deep frown.

Sirius shooed the teen out of the room and went back to his book.

***

Two days later, Sirius was standing in the middle of the cute house that he had had his eye on for the last month. Teddy was running from room to room, and Lily was busy opening up every cabinet in the kitchen for some reason. The real estate agent was talking about the pricing, “It’s a decent price for the place, but someone has already made an offer this morning.”

Sirius’ heart dropped. He had fallen in love with the four bedroom two bath house, with a great view and plenty of natural light. “Oh.”

“The sellers are open to more offers but if you’re interested I’d put in a bid.”

He knew he was supposed to talk to Remus about things like this, but he really wanted the house. If the man could just see the place he’d understand but Remus had no interest in it. Sirius was even honest, letting him know that he was going to be looking at the place after picking Teddy up from rugby. Remus still didn’t want anything to do with the place. “If I made an offer, can I back out? It’s just my boyfriend is a bit stubborn. I love it, but he’s just… I don’t know.”

“Yes, nothing is set in stone until you sign the papers.” The agent said. “You’re completely welcome to make an offer then rescind it. But I think this is a great place to start a family.”

“Sirius! We need to get it. My room would be so big!” Teddy said, coming back into the living area.

“And that kitchen is amazing. Remus could do some great cooking in there.” Lily said. “You’re putting in an offer, right?”

“Yes, I’ll put in an offer.” And that’s just what Sirius did because he was an idiot.

He didn’t think his offer would be accepted, it was below the asking price and probably not as high as the first offer. When they went home, Teddy gabbed endlessly to his father about the house. When he finally settled on the point that Sirius made the offer, Remus clenched his jaw but didn’t say a thing. They also didn’t talk about it the rest of the night, or the next day. They didn’t really talk about much.

The following day, which was a rare rainy Friday in Hokitika Sirius got the call that his offer was accepted. He should have told the real estate agent he was no longer interested, but he couldn’t help himself when he asked what the next steps were.

“My offer was accepted,” Sirius said that night as he and Remus sat in the living room watching telly. Teddy was staying at a mate’s house, as he normally did on a Friday or Saturday. Sirius was sure it was something to do with the fact that the three of them had only so room to breath.

“On the house that I don’t want to move to.” Remus said in a flat tone.

“You haven’t even seen it.”

“Because I don’t want to move, Sirius. Why don’t you understand that?”

“Why don’t you want to move?” He asked, trying to understand what the big problem was.

“For one, it’s all your money that you’d be spending to live there.”

“And right now I live in your flat, above your pub.”

“You do understand that it does matter.”

“I don’t care if I bought the damn house. You can pay for utilites or something. I don't know.”

“What happens when you decide that you do mind?”

“I won’t.” Sirius furrowed his brow. “Why do you think I would?”

“Because that stuff happens eventually, doesn’t it?” Remus crossed his arms and sat back.

“Do you think that I’m just going to hate you because I decided to buy a house or…”

“Our life isn’t going to happy all the time.”

“It’s not like we don’t argue about things now. For instance, we are having a disagreement at this very moment. We haven't exactly been in a happy place the last few days..”

“And soon you’re going to want to talk about adopting kids. I did hear that conversation between you and Teddy. I’m not completely daft, you know? I don’t want any more children, Sirius. I fucked up the first one enough.”

“Teddy is not fucked up at all.” Sirius huffed, he hated when Remus would turn on the self-loathing parent brain. “He’s a happy, normal teenager.” Sirius let out a long, tired sigh. “I want this house, Remus. I think you’d want it too if you would just see it. Please, come see it with me.”

“No.”

“So, what? Are you not even going to try for me? Just see it and if you hate it then I'll back out of the offer. I moved —“

“Don’t pull the shite. That’s low.”

“I’m just trying to say that I’ve made my own sacrifices for us.” Sirius stood up, feeling the need to pace suddenly. “I just want you to try.”

“We’re not even married. This is something that usually happens after marriage.”

“Is that what you’re going back on? Really? We don’t really follow a traditional path. We were friends then friends with secret benefits then we were nothing, and then I moved back home then came back here and lived with you. We never really ‘dated’ or whatever. Which is fine but you can’t use it as some sort of excuse for not wanting to buy the house.”

“I really don’t even want to talk about this.”

“God, Remus, we can’t not talk about things. We did that before and it didn’t work out for us.”

“Maybe we should just take a step back for a second.”

Sirius’ heart dropped. This couldn’t be happening again. Remus had turned entirely off when Sirius said he was going back to England. Instead of coming to terms with whatever strong feelings he was having, Remus just shut down. Sirius knew it stemmed from Remus losing so much in a short period of time when he was younger. Even though Sirius knew that, it didn’t make things any better. “What does that mean, step back?”

“You can buy the house, but I don’t want to move in.”

“Why would I want a big house all to myself?” Sirius shook his head. “I want to fill it with you and Teddy and one day another kid or two.”

“You seem very ready to leave this place, Sirius, so you can freely do so whenever you want.”

If Sirius weren’t such a hot head, he would have stopped and calmed down. But he was always a fan of the knee-jerk reaction. So Sirius decided to be dramatic and storm off to the Potter’s house after grabbing a change of clothes. He just wanted things to be easy for once, and he thought this would be the answer. Clearly, it wasn't.

***

“You can’t just leave, Sirius,” Teddy complained, sitting at the Potter’s dining room table the Sunday after Sirius and Remus had fought over the flat. It had been two days since he was last in the Lupin flat and he was missing Remus and Teddy. He was not missing the tight quarters, but that really meant little in the scheme of things.

“I’m not leaving. Your father just needs a bit of space.” Sirius put a hand on the teen’s shoulder and squeezed it.

“Can I come live with you at the new place?” Teddy asked with a bit of a frown.

Sirius smiled sadly, “Teddy, I have no legal claim to you. I couldn’t let you live there with me without your Papa.”

Teddy put his elbows on the table. “If you two break up, you’re not just going to forget about me right?”

“Of course not.” Sirius shook his head. “And we’re not breaking up. Papa is just — he’s just being a stubborn.”

Teddy snorted a laugh. “Do you think it’s because it’s my granddad’s place? The pub?”

“I don’t know.” Sirius had a feeling the whole thing about Remus not wanting Sirius to buy the house because he couldn’t afford it was just an easy excuse for what was really bothering him with the whole idea of moving. Remus had a lot of trauma in his past that he always had some problems dealing with it, but he was mostly doing okay lately. But a significant change in life could undoubtedly bring up a lot. Sirius understood because he had his own past. Their baggage was something that worried them both at times, but for the most part, their baggage matched reasonably well without making things unhealthy between them.

“If it is, it’s daft. I didn’t know him but I think my granddad would have liked Papa falling in love and being happy elsewhere. It’s not as if he’d have to sell the pub. He could even rent the flat upstairs out, right? People do those things. He could make enough money to pay some of the house, eh?”

“I guess, that’s something you should talk to your Papa about.” Sirius suggested then pushed himself up. “Enough of being down, let’s go do something fun.”

“Like shopping for the new house?”

“You are relentless, child.” Sirius snickered, but he decided that it might be a fun thing to do. He could only hope that Remus would eventually come around to the idea of the house.

***

After spending the weekend away from Remus and only getting the occasional text from the man, he decided to go to the flat on Monday before Teddy was due home but in a time that Remus wasn’t going to be at the pub. He figured he had given himself enough time to not be a hot head for the inevitable fight he was going to have with his partner. Sirius loathed arguing like this with Remus because the other man could be brutal, mostly on himself.

“Come to pack your things?” Remus asked when Sirius found him in the kitchen having a cuppa.

“Stop, please.” Sirius took a seat with a sigh. “I just want to have a real conversation about this without it becoming a big argument.”

“Why have you left for the last two days?”

“Because I didn’t want to have a shouting match with you. I needed some time away. Why haven’t you answered my texts or calls?”

“Because I’m not sure what I want to say to you.”

“We’re not breaking up,” Sirius said firmly.

“We aren’t? Normally people don’t run off for a few days after the other says they need to take a step back.”

“I took the step back. Now let’s talk about it.”

“I’m not moving. I just can’t.” Remus shook his head and looked down into his cup of tea. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

“You won’t lose me. I’m not going anywhere, Remus. I’m sorry about the last two days. I just didn’t want to say anything hurtful. I won’t ever be leaving New Zealand except for a holiday or something if that’s something you’re worried about.” Sirius assured the other man. “I also don’t see myself leaving you. I know we’ve been arguing about this, and we have our small little bickering every so often, but we have a good relationship. I’m sorry I bought the house without you, but it just felt so right, and I know you’ll love it. But I know I was so daft to do it without you.”

Remus frowned deeply and rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know if I can do it, Sirius.”

“Do what?” Sirius took a deep breath as if he was preparing himself for a blow.

“Us, this. A house, getting married, babies. It has nothing to do with you buying a house without me. I just— it honestly has nothing to do with you at all.”

Sirius felt as if his heart was breaking in his chest. “Do you think we should break up then?”

“I think, maybe we should just go on with how things are.”

“But you’re unhappy, and I’m moving out. I could stay.”

“No, you bought your dream home, and that’s fantastic. Teddy has my permission to go and decorate his own room if you and he are keen on that. I don’t want him to be hurt because I just can’t get it together.”

“I don’t want to sound like a twat, or I’m pressuring you, I’m just speaking from my own personal experience — when was the last time you went to see your therapist?” Sirius asked, leaning on the table. Maybe Remus needed to confront something things in his past.

“It’s been a while and I should probably.”

Sirius nodded. “Do you want me to stay here?”

“No.” Remus shook his head. “I think it’d be a good idea for you to go stay at the Potters until you get the house settled or whatever.” Remus drummed his fingers on the table.

“I love you,” Sirius said, reaching over for Remus’ hands. “I do, and I’ll go and continue to take the step back like you want, but I’m not going to stop loving you or caring about Teddy until you tell me definitively to fuck off.”

“I love you too. I just — I don’t know.” Remus sighed.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay and be annoyingly sweet with you?” Sirius rubbed his thumb over Remus’ knuckles.

“No,” He laughed. “I’m not depressed, I’m just confused and I think talking to someone will be good.”

“Okay.” Sirius didn’t want to leave so he sat there holding Remus’ hand for a little while longer.


	2. Chapter 2

It took two weeks for all the paperwork to finalize and for Sirius to be given the keys to his first home. He was sure it was supposed to feel a lot more exciting than it did but he was missing his most important piece of this new life. Remus still wanted that distance, and Sirius was complying. He had been by for dinner over the two weeks and spent plenty of time with Teddy, and nothing seemed too strained. It just didn’t feel right because he had been spending so much of his time with Remus since returning to Hokitika. He loved Remus with all of his heart but he was beginning to doubt that the other man felt the same way.

Sirius wasn’t sure what he would do if Remus didn’t want to get back together. He had grown so attached to not only Remus but Teddy as well. He enjoyed being a dad-like figure to the teen. He also enjoyed being a lovely small family with the two. If he couldn’t have that then what would his life look like? Sirius now lived in a relatively small town, and all of his friends were friends with Remus. Everyone knew each other. This was his whole life now, and he was happy before this. Why did he have to go and buy a bloody house? He should have had more of a conversation with Remus but he was just so impulsive sometimes, it never failed.

Standing in the middle of his living room, which flowed nicely into the open kitchen and dining room, he felt utterly lonely. It also didn’t help that there were only a few boxes in the house along with the sofa he had purchased and the new beds for both his and Teddy’s rooms. It just didn’t feel right for him to be there and fill everything that he wanted without the input of Remus. He already bought the house without Remus, if he was going to come around Sirius thought the man should have a lot of say in the decor and such. But with the way Remus had been acting since Sirius had purchased the house, it wasn’t looking very good for any future shopping adventures to fill the house.

He flopped down on the sofa, which was just up against a wall for the time being because he had no clue where it should go. Teddy was going to come and put his room together in a few hours, so at least Sirius wasn’t going to be completely alone. He had always had some romantic idea of spending the first night in a new house camping out in sleeping bags on the living room floor and eating some takeaway and laughing with whoever he was sharing the space with. With how he was feeling, he was thinking about just going back to the Lupins when he dropped Teddy off at home.

After moping on the sofa for about a half hour, he was about to get up and unpack the few things he did have when there was a knock on the front door. He pushed himself off the sofa, getting ready to scold Teddy for skipping out of school early or to shoo Lily away for worrying about him. Behind the door was Remus, with his hands in his pockets, looking a little guilty.

“Hi, ah…” Sirius felt dumbstruck for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” Remus said after a deep breath. “Can I come in?”

“Of bloody course, you can come in.” Sirius stepped aside. “Why exactly are you sorry?”

“For pushing you away,” Remus said, looking around the room. “I’m just used to things going wrong, and I guess I was looking for a way to stop anything from happening. I went to therapy as you suggested. I’ve gone a few times now, actually, and just got out of an appointment.”

“Oh.” Sirius wasn’t sure what to do. He was afraid to do anything, honestly, if fear of scaring Remus away like some wild animal.

“She helped me realize that I can’t keep thinking about the next bad thing that’s going to happen because I’ll never be happy and probably die horribly early.” Remus stepped closer to Sirius. “I don’t want that to happen because I’m madly in love with you and I do want to move here. I can’t even breathe back at the flat, and I know how unhappy you and Teddy are. I was just so scared. I’m still scared, but I can’t take being away from you any longer.”

“Thank god.” Sirius grabbed the other man’s hands. “I was thinking about going to the flat after Teddy came round later because I didn’t want to be here all alone tonight.”

“Well, I’m staying here. I have some stuff in the rover that I packed up. I didn’t pack up the flat yet but I wanted to show you that I want this to be our home.”

Sirius felt tears in his eyes. For weeks their relationship was hanging in the balance and now Remus was ready to take that next big step finally. He had been trying to prepare himself for the end mentally but this wasn’t the end, it was the beginning of the next part of their journey together. Something he never thought he would have while he was a teenager, or even in his twenties. Then Remus came along with his broodiness and deep thinking. With his lovely son and his wonderful friends.

“And what I said before about getting married and having kids, I didn’t mean that either. I want that because I don’t want anything but you and a happy little life. I just said it for all the same reasons why I didn’t want to move." Remus squeezed his hands.

“So you’re going to live here, and we’re going to be a happy, ridiculous family.”

“Yes.” Remus laughed.

“Good, Teddy’s going to be happy.”

“Are you happy?”

“Are you mad? Of course, I’m happy. This is all I wanted. I’m still sorry I did this without—”

“I’m glad you did. I mean, don’t do something like this again. But I’m glad you did this.” Remus kissed him, backing him towards the sofa. “How long do we have until my son’s here?”

“Few hours.”

“Few hours. Mmm, perfect.”

***

A few hours later, Remus had moved his car down the street following cleaning themselves up a bit. The two men were working on putting together the bed that Teddy had selected for his room so he’d have somewhere to sleep that night. “You know, I thought I’d be sleeping on my floor the first night in my new fancy house. Why is this some romantic idea of mine?”

Remus chuckled, “I don’t know. It’s a thing done in movies, eh?”

“I guess,” Sirius said as he heard the front door open.

“Sirius! Where are you? I’m here. Have you heard from Papa? He texted me earlier asking me the address.” Teddy called out. His voice was growing louder as he got closer to his room.

“Yeah, I heard from your father.”

“What’d he—” Teddy stopped in the doorway of his room, his eyes falling on his papa. “You’re here. And putting together my bed.”

“I know how terrible you and Sirius are at anything handy. I needed to make sure that no one got hurt.”

“So, you’re okay. Like, you two aren’t rowing anymore?”

“No, and we’re moving here.”

“Chur, that’s the best news I heard all day.” Teddy grinned. “When are you getting married?”

“God, you need to stop that.” Remus snickered as his son took a seat on the mattress, which was on the ground waiting for Remus and Sirius to finish putting the bed together.

“It’s true though. You’ve a house now.” Teddy said. “I mean, I could even… even call Sirius dad.” He said hesitantly. Teddy had accidentally called Sirius dad one morning, but he nor Teddy ever mentioned it again. Though, it did make Sirius feel as if his heart grew three sizes when it happened. He never thought of being someone’s dad before Teddy. But he also didn’t want to tell Teddy that he should call him dad, he thought it was the teen’s choice.

Remus looked at Sirius with a soft smile. “You could, I think, call Sirius dad without us being married.”

“That’s not what I meant. I meant that he basically…”

“Well, you can, call me dad. If you want.” Sirius said, his voice wavering a little.

“Bloody hell, don’t cry about it,”Teddy complained, flopping on to his back and putting a hand over his head.

“I’m not!” He said after clearing his throat. “I’m just happy.”

“All right, dad,” Teddy said with a laugh.

Sirius beamed.

“Could make the official, you know,” Remus said. “If you wanted.”

“Yeah, I want to.”

“You do.” Teddy sat back up. “You want to adopt me?”

“Of course I do.” Sirius rolled his eyes. “I’d be mad not to.”

“I’ll take a look at what we need to do.” Remus nodded. “When we get internet, that is. We’re going primitive for a day, Ted. How’s that make you feel?”

“I’ll survive. Can we watch a movie or something? Maybe get some takeaway?” Teddy asked eagerly. As if they didn’t just make the big decision that Sirius was going to adopt him officially.

“Sure, that’s a brilliant idea.”

That night, Sirius had everything he ever wanted but never dreamed about before coming to New Zealand. He had a home, he had a boyfriend that he loved, he had a son, and he watched a movie in the living room of his new house while eating take away out of containers on the floor. Life was probably just about as perfect as it was going to get for him.

***

About a month passed by before they were completely settled into the house. Sirius planned a small housewarming, which also coincided with his brother and Bill coming into town. They had the Potters, Tonks, Marlene, Mary, and Dorcas all over for a barbecue in the back garden. Remus, of course, did all the cooking, with some help from Lily and Ted, as Sirius spent most of the time chasing the kids around and chatting with their guests. Eventually, they all sat down to eat, and Sirius stood up to make a toast before they got too into their food and conversation.

“Ah, I just wanted to say thanks to you all for coming. It’s been two years since I first set foot in New Zealand and I started to meet everyone. I was lucky enough to have been forced to go to the pub by James on my third day here where I met a grumpy barkeep and his breaking-and-entering son.”

“Oi! I never steal anything.”

“Not something to be proud of,” Remus muttered and rolled his eyes.

“But I’m so happy I did because I’m here after a long time of not being happy. And I have you all to thank for getting there. So cheers.” Sirius raised his glass before taking a sip and sitting back down. Right before he went to go pick up his fork, Remus stood up next to him.

“Sorry, but I’ve something to say too. Well, two things. First, ah, the adoption papers are in and just need your signature to be Teddy’s legal guardian.”

Everyone at the table cheered and Sirius grinned at Teddy who looked as if as he were about to cry. But he played it off as most teenage boys did.

“Um, and I just wanted to say that I’m so thankful that I got to meet this stodgy British bloke with pasty skin.” The table laughed and Sirius snickered, leaning back in his chair. He looked up as his partner with a smile. “After having been through some — shite, I never thought I could let myself fall in love and be so connected with someone else. Then you managed to wiggle your way in.”

“Oh, you’re asking him to marry you!” Teddy bolted out of his seat. “YES! IT’S HAPPENING!”

Remus heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Yes, I am, asking you Sirius to marry me. I mean, it’s sort of out of the way. We got a house, you’ve adopted Ted, and now…”

“Now we’re going to get married.” Sirius stood up and wrapped his arms around Remus tight. He was surprised at the sob that past his lips and the tears on his cheeks as he just rested his head against Remus’ shoulder. He stayed like that for a long moment, feeling safe even though he could hear the rest of the table excitedly talking. No this, was as perfect as it was going to get for him.


End file.
